


Surprise Gift

by KennaM



Series: Fandom Kittens [5]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kittens, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4051867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KennaM/pseuds/KennaM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hamadas discover kittens they didn't expect to have to deal with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise Gift

Hiro didn’t even realize he hadn’t seen Mochi in days until Aunt Cass pointed it out to him. “I remember feeding him yesterday,” she said when they were sitting down for dinner, “but I haven’t seen him since. I’ve left food out, and someone’s been eating it, but….”

He swallowed a mouthful of rice, and said, “I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he just found a warm place to hide, since it’s been getting colder.” Cass nodded absently and picked at her plate. Hiro watched her, thinking. Baymax was still in his charging bay at school, but he must have the extra battle helmet in the garage somewhere, and surely that scanner could be used to detect non-human lifeforms, right?

Dumping the rest of his plate into his mouth, Hiro excused himself early from dinner. The reprogramming took about twenty minutes, and a few more to finally install. He copied the data into his own purple helmet just for kicks, then got distracted updating the HUD functionality before remembering his original goal.

An hour later, Hiro found the kittens in Tadashi’s closet. That corner of the room had been untouched for months, the paper folding screen creating a psychological boundary neither Hiro nor Cass cared to cross. Now, all the clean shirts and sweaters had been pulled out of drawers or dragged off hangers to create a sort of fabric nest, and on top of them all lay four tiny kittens. They were so small they could barely move, and their eyes were squeezed shut.

“Uh, Aunt Cass?” Hiro called. He heard her respond from the floor below. “I found Mochi.”

“What? Where?” she called back, and moments later she pushed into his bedroom, following the direction of his voice. She saw him standing by the paper screen, cautiously peeked around the corner, and gasped. Mochi stared up at them passively from the bundle of clothes, then shifted protectively around the kittens again.

“Kittens!” Cass exclaimed, excitedly grabbing Hiro’s shoulder, then, “oh no, kittens! What are we going to do with them? They’re so cute! Where’s the mother?”

Hiro nervously glanced up at his aunt. “I think… Mochi _is_ the mother.”

Cass didn’t move for a second. “B-but the vet said…” she finally sputtered.

“Looks like the vet was wrong.”

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, watching the kittens move around, and Mochi’s silent, steady breathing. After a while Cass finally said, “we’re going to have to wash those shirts again.”

Hiro lived with the kittens in his room for the next few weeks. After a couple of days, they opened their eyes, and the next day he came home from the lab to see them wandering, slowly, around the bedroom. They mostly stayed behind Tadashi’s screen, and Hiro sat at the desk, watching them climb into an old pair of Tadashi’s shoes, or chew at the carpet under Tadashi’s bed. Cass had carefully moved them, much to Mochi’s displeasure, into a woven basket covered in dishrags, then run Tadashi’s clothes through the laundry twice. The salvaged clothes were still folded in the laundry basket.

At night, Hiro could hear their soft cries in the murky light. They got louder as the weeks went on, but he didn’t mind; it was calming, not being alone in his bedroom anymore.

Cass moved the kittens down to the second floor of the building after about three weeks, and when he wasn’t working on his robotics projects, Hiro furiously researched proper kitten care. They were old enough to start getting in trouble now, so he constructed a barrier to keep them out of the café, and Aunt Cass spoiled them as best she could during her free time.

A month after they had been discovered, Hiro led his team up to the second floor kitchen to introduce them. “This is Miso,” he said, scooping up a pale creamy white/brown kitten and handing it to Honey. “Manju,” he handed the spotted brown kitten to Fred. “Dango,” he said of the calico deposited into Go Go’s arms. “And Dashi,” Hiro said with a smile, and picked up the black kitten to hand to Wasabi.

“They’re so cute!” Honey Lemon exclaimed. She rubbed the fur along Miso’s back, then held the quiet kitten to her chest as she helped Manju down from where he had climbed onto Fred’s shoulder. Dango play fought with Go Go’s fingers, and Dashi fought to escape Wasabi’s hands as he held him out, awkwardly, under his forelegs.

“That’s not how you hold it,” Go Go said, demonstrating. “How old did you say they were, Hiro?”

“Four weeks, I think?” He shuffled his feet. “They’re still really young but Aunt Cass says we can’t keep them all – five cats is too much to take care of, plus the shop-“

“Ooh, ooh!” Fred interrupted. Manju was back to climbing up his arms, but he had also taken Dashi from Wasabi so he barely seemed to notice. “Can I keep one? If it’s ok?”

Hiro smiled with relief. “They’re too young to leave their mother yet, but sure,” he said. “Pick one.”

Fred shrugged to indicate the kitten currently balancing on his shoulder. “I think Manju already picked me,” he said with a grin.

“He looks like the troublesome one,” Go Go said. “They match.”

“So Mochi was a girl this whole time?” Wasabi asked. He still seemed overly cautious around the tiny creatures, but was now scratching Dango under the chin while Go Go held her for him.

“Yeah, surprise, right? Apparently Calicos are rarely male – Dango’s the only female in the litter.”

“Could I keep her?” Go Go asked. “Once she’s old enough to be weaned? I’d have to hide her from my manager, but.“ Go Go shrugged.

“Awww,” Honey Lemon sighed, “I wish my apartment allowed cats. Look how sweet Miso is! He’s purring!” The kitten was still curled up in Honey’s arms, watching the others.

“He is the calmest one out of the group,” Hiro said, thinking. “Do you think they’d mind if we brought him to campus? Like, a resident pet?”

Honey Lemon cracked into a wide smile. “Yes!” she said. “Or, maybe. Hopefully! He’d have to get all of his vaccinations and shots-“

“Oh, I can take care of that,” Fred said. “There is _no way_ my parents are letting me keep a cat at the house if it hasn’t been vaccinated.”

Honey beamed at the others. “Ok, ok,” she said, “pictures!” She corralled them together to take a group selfie, then handed Miso back to Hiro so she could take individual shots of the kittens. Miso looked upset to have been disturbed, but settled into Hiro’s arms in seconds, and started up his signature purr.

Wasabi was left cradling Miso and Dashi at the end of the photoshoot, when he suddenly looked back up at Hiro. “Is Aunt Cass gonna let you keep Dashi?” He asked. Hiro couldn’t help his grin.

“She said as long as I’m the one to take care of him, and I keep him out of the café, she’ll let me keep him. Mochi would probably be sad if all of the kittens were suddenly gone.”


End file.
